How to Befriend a Tankadin

As one of our guild's two resident tankadins, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how to best interact with various dps classes. Basically, two big factors distinguish paladins from warriors/druids:

1) Most of our threat generation is passive, resulting from AoEs or being hit. This means that if you draw aggro, it's much harder for us (if our taunt is on cooldown or the mob is untauntable) to get it back.

2) We use mana instead of rage. Since we regain mana from being healed, the important part of this is that we need to be taking damage in order to produce threat -- even more so than a warrior, I believe, although I do not have a level 70 warrior tank to compare. Initially, it may seem like it's the other way around, since the link between warrior damage and threat generation is one step instead of two, but I believe that it is even more important for a tankadin to be taking damage.

A couple of things you might want to know: we start many pulls by throwing our shield, which produces a lot of threat on three enemies -- less if it misses one, never more. The shield moves in what I believe is a deterministic way, but it's not always obvious which enemies it will hit. Also, our taunt has a longer cooldown than a warrior's: 15 seconds instead of 10. Compensating for this: we taunt all enemies off a given ally instead of just one, and we don't need to be in melee range to do it.

With this in mind, here's a rough guide on how to interact with DPS classes:

1) Rogue: The worst thing that can happen to us is to have a rogue stunlock the main target. Because our threat generation is passive, we need to be getting hit to maintain aggro, and also having the enemy stunned means we are taking less damage. If you are a rogue and you want your tank to like you, don't stunlock the main target or really anything; you will have it stuck to you, and a quick vanish just means that your healer will die instead, because we haven't gotten a whole lot of threat on it. Obviously, stunlock can be useful for temporary mitigation, but be sure your tank approves. Meanwhile, the sap presents an interesting challenge, in that we have to make sure that the shield doesn't hit it. This is usually difficult, because the best way to do this is to sap something in back, which is harder. I usually facepull when sap is in effect, which of course means dps needs to back off a bit and the healer needs to be ready.

2) DPS plate: No particular ramifications. If there is a ret paladin, they should make sure to slap on a seal of the crusader (improved) which they were probably going to do anyway, and sanctity aura (same deal) -- both of these results in us doing more holy damage, which is most of our damage, and which via Righteous Fury means tons of threat. Life should be pretty easy with a ret paladin around as far as threat goes. For fury and arms warriors, no real special treatment.

3) Hunter: The hunter can do many clever things which will help us. Because we're weak on ranged, misdirect pulls will often come in very handy for line of sight; the holy shield has a 30 yard range, instead of 35 for shooting. Note that the hunter can MD you and then you can scamper out of sight for an instant line-of-sight pull. If you have a particularly excellent hunter, they can MD, give you lots of threat on the primary target, and then trap a secondary target. MD also obviously combines well with a sapped enemy for line of sight pulls.

Freezing traps present a problem for the shield. Optimal, obviously, is to not have the shield hit the freezing trap. If there are 3 or fewer enemies, or you don't know where the shield is going necessarily (I believe it jumps to the nearest enemy with ties broken by distance to you, it hitting the nearer one, but this may not be reliable and distances may not be easy to ascertain), this may not be possible. Hunters need to generate more threat on the target than they may be used to from warriors -- a Distracting Shot and a couple more hits should do the trick.

We have an advantage on trap resists, since we can taunt the mob back from afar; of course, if we threw our shield, the hunter can just feign death and we'll get the mob back.

4) Mages -- the shield throw is huge here. If you hit the to-be-sheeped mob with your shield, then the sheep will come to you if it breaks or is resisted, instead of the usual beeline for the hapless mage. I'm not sure how aggro generation for an enemy in sheep form works -- I think there is none, which means that if you have hit it with the shield, no matter how many times it's resheeped, it will likely come for you when it's done. Also, because the target is dazed, it comes for you slowly, which means the mage has plenty of time to sheep it before the mobs come into where you have placed the fight and will be concentrating. This is an excellent dps class for a paladin to work with, not even counting the oh-so-useful biscuits.

5) Warlocks -- warlocks can go more nuts with us than with warriors, because of the threat we generate on all the mobs. In particular, a warlock can usually get away with a DoT or two on each mob. Obviously, don't overdo it, but your tankadin should be able to hold threat with one or two torture devices in place. Banish is also a nice device, because you can consecrate through it. Seduction is quite iffy, on the other hand, because it's hard to maintain it in place since there is an interval in between and the mob is likely to run into our consecrate in the meantime.

6) Shadow priests -- you're in luck. Your Vampiric Embrace will no longer cause all the mobs to hate you. Also, when you mind control a guy and it fails, we're there to save the day instantly with a taunt. No need to thank us -- that mana we're getting back from VE is more than enough.

7) Shamans -- no particular notes, as far as I can tell. Mana spring totems make us happy.

8) Cats -- see rogues, minus comments about sap.

9) Boomkin -- no particular notes. It's worth noting that I haven't run nearly as much with the last three items on this list, so there may be ramifications I'm completely missing.

Curator Down!

Eight Lambdas and two esteemed colleagues waltzed into Karazhan this morning and downed Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Crone, and Curator in just about 3.5 hours. Nice! Many phat lewts were obtained, including Legacy for our hunter friend and T4 gloves for Crushey.

First, the obligatory "Curator down" screen shot:


Plus, a bonus group photo:


Woohoo!

Nola's Visit to Karazhan

Nola recently picked up her Karazhan key and decided to check the place out. It's quite the intimidating place for a tiny gnome!

Undaunted, Nola walked up to the gate and unlocked it using her shiny new key. The gate popped open, and in she went, only to find herself staring at the front door.

After seeing this door, she has some suggestions for the tower's staff on accommodating their smaller guests. At any rate, nobody answered, so she figured she'd save them the trouble and let herself in.

In the tower's entry, she introduced herself to a friendly and well-dressed doorman, who told her a bit about the tower.

Seems like such a friendly fellow... Now why couldn't he have opened the door? Anyway, she figured she'd start her tour at the stables.

Quite an offer! Can you believe he refused? Nola decided to spare him (this time), but Mr. Midnight is certainly off her Christmas card list. She headed back to the main ballroom but got a bit lost on the way...

Yikes! They should clean out this place a bit more carefully. Good thing those spiders weren't too bright... Anyway, she eventually made it to the main ballroom.

Quite the party! Nola was excited to see so many other partially-visible guests, but they didn't seem to notice her. It's probably for the best--she's not much for dancing with giants, particularly when they look so hostile!

Unfortunately, some of the tower's staff members weren't quite as welcoming as the doorman.

A quick apology (and a Vanish, for good measure) kept things peaceful, and Nola managed to make it to the banquet hall. Seizing the opportunity, Nola tried to dance on the banquet table, only to have her offer rebuffed in a most uncivilized manner.

Honestly, she has never seen worse treatment of a friendly (and tiny, and mostly invisible) guest. Next time she'll be back, and with reinforcements! Pointy reinforcements...

[time passes]

Sure enough, a few months later, Nola is back for a second visit to Medivh's famed tower! She was invited to visit the tower by nine of her closest Alliance friends (well, eight friends and a really surly dwarf), and she allowed them to witness as she single-handedly delivered Midnight's comeuppance. She decided that it was rather rude to take all the fun and challenge out of her friends' visit, though, so she kindly allowed them to fight their way through the rest of the tower without her assistance. Despite the fact that they no longer had the benefit of her legendary combat prowess, they seem to have done well for themselves. Nola visited the tower after their departure for a quick victory lap, and she took some photos while she was at it...

First, we have the aptly-named "broken stair". It's a stair, and it sure is broken. It seems everyone is so enthralled with the opera house downstairs that nobody has managed to maintain the rooms upstairs.

Thankfully, the tower isn't all so unsightly. It soon leads to a quaint hallway ordinarily watched by the so-called Curator.

Honestly, Nola questions the taste of any "Curator" who chooses to display those green-eyed gargoyles. Yecch. But you ain't seen nothin' yet...

HOLY MOTHER OF MEKKATORQUE! They put a giant statue of a freakin' dwarf in this place? Not even Blackrock Depths was this bad. Nola posed in front of it, in order to suggest a more suitable subject matter, should the owners choose to commission some new art.

Next up, we have the library, and what a library it is!

Truly dizzying! Nola was hardly able to take her eyes off the architecture, until she happened to spy a familiar-looking name in the corner.

Sadly, he assured Nola that he has no knowledge of this "Gravalun" fellow [ed: guild 'lock] and fears that he may be some sort of imposter. Oh well!

Anyway, you recall that this is a library, right? The kind where you store books? Well, not this one!

FIRE! It's a fire! They're burning books! What kind of twisted library is this? No help came, though, and Nola felt it would be a bit suspicious to stick around.

Fortunately, the rest of the library contains a number of books that are not currently on fire. In fact, there are a number of distinctly non-fiery books lying around, and I do mean lying around. Honestly, it's enough to cause anyone with a library science degree to rupture an artery or three. Nola made the best of a bad situation.

After that brief detour, Nola pressed on, climbing to dizzying heights in this Escher-esque library. Don't look down!

Even up here, though, the place is littered with the results of what is, frankly, some pretty sloppy bookkeeping.

To be honest, Nola was beginning to tire of all of these ridiculous books. Many of them weren't even legible! When she found a friendly Ethereal fellow lighting another fire, she felt quite sympathetic.

Thankfully, that was just about the end of this ridiculous library. Next up was a quick detour to the observatory!

Don't let the perspective fool you--that's quite the telescope there. Nola couldn't even reach the eyepiece!

Onward to the game room...

Quite the chess board, eh? Nola didn't seem to fit in with those orcs, and despite her encouragement, the footmen wouldn't budge an inch. This chess board wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be.

Beyond the chess room was the entrance to the chambers of Medivh himself.

Seems like some sort of whacked-out wizard sauna. Nola tried to relax, but she could swear one of those statues was looking at her. Anyway, if you're wondering who designed this place, check out the next room:

This is probably where Medivh and his wizard buddies go to get high. That explains so much...

Next, a quick pit stop at a rather large bed.

And finally, we've made it to the top of the tower!

Check out the dragon in the distance. Neat, eh?

You might think that this is it, but apparently Medivh figured out how to add on a whole lot of extra real estate to the top of this place. Need more square footage to sell the place? No problemo!

Whoa. Now that's spacious!

Looks like this is the end of the line, though, so there's only one thing left for Nola to do... Strip down to the tabard and leap to her death in the library! Goodbye, cruel world!

So ends another chapter in Nola's exploration of Karazhan. Tragic! Next time, though, next time...

A Warlock's Dilemma

In instances, minion choice is generally situational. Felguard or voidwalker for off-tanking, imp for +stamina and fire shield, succubus for crowd control, felhound for...something.

But what's the best choice for general questiness? For 30 levels, I've run with a Felguard. I love him. I attempt to keep him alive in instances. He looks really cool. But is he better than the voidwalker for general running around? For 30 levels I thought i knew the answer. Now i'm not so sure.

For those of you who are more baseball statistics-minded (read: not me) here's the stat breakdown for a lvl 70 warlock, 42 Demonology, 19 Affliction.

----	Voidwalker	Felguard
Health	7014	5010
Mana	4658	4127
Str	153	153
Agi	108	108
Stm	457	457
Int	326	280
Spr	122	122
Power	634	630
Damage	139-171	228-282
Spell Bonus	+91	+90
Armor	9384	8503
---	reduces	reduces
---	damage 47%	damage 43%

Felguard does have Cleave and Charge and a better taunt than the voidwalker. Voidwalker has Consume Shadows and sacrifice. When i run with the blueberry, it seems like he dies more, but that might just be an impression.

I don't really play by statistics because I've always suspected they don't give you the whole picture. Looking at the stats for Felguard vs. Voidwalker, it seems that the voidwalker is the better choice. But is it? Am I missing something? I think so. But what?

open letter

Dear Mr. Devilsaur,

Please stop killing me and my pet every time I set foot in Un'Goro Crater. Failure to do so will result in severe repercussions from some powerful and hate-filled gnomes.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Tacostalker

375 Drinking

I decided to start my own booze blog instead of clogging this one with my off-topic posts. sorry to anyone who was annoyed. You can find this one (and more to come!) at 375 Drinking!

look for more posts at Darkmoon Special Reserve

375 Engineering!

With almost enough gold in my pocket to train 300 riding skill, it was time to think seriously about crafting Merial's epic flying machine. Cheaper, more mudane mounts are available, of course, but what self-respecting engineer could pass up the opportunity to zip around Outlands in their very own epic flying machine?

The challenge, of course, is getting to 375 engineering without going completely broke in the process. Usually Lootables is a nice place to start when leveling your profession, but their engineering guide misses a few money-saving opportunities, and they assume that you're just grinding for grinding's sake. If you have a specific goal in mind, you can get skillups for crafting the materials that you'll need later on.

I'm going to focus on 350 and up (since that's what I've done recently and remember well), but for the sake of completeness, I'll start at 300:

• 300-325: Elemental Blasting Powder, Fel Iron Casings, Fel Iron Bolts, and Fel Iron Shells. On my server, Fel Iron Casings are marginally profitable, though they don't move very fast at the auction house. The other items are not necessarily profitable, but you'll need at least 20 Blasting Powder for Smoke Flares (below), and you'll need at least 9 Casings and 12 Bolts for Adamantite Rifles (also below). The Shells will get you to 325 if nothing else will.
  
• 325-335: Adamantite Frames. These babies are profitable, and you'll need a bunch for Adamantite Rifles later on. Load up!
• 335-350: Smoke Flares. Recipes for these flares come in various colors. There's a green one available from the Cenarion dudes, and a plain one available in Area 52. They cost virtually nothing to make and will easily get you to 350. If you're patient, I hear they'll carry you to 355.
• 350-365: Felsteel Stabilizers, Khorium Power Cores, Hardened Adamantite Tubes. You'll need 8 each of the Stabilizers and the Power Cores for your flying machine, and you'll need 5 Tubes for Khorium Scopes later on. If you plan to make your epic goggles as well (and have the requisite Primal Nether), you'll want to make an extra 4 Stabilizers, 2 Tubes, and 1 Power Core, plus the goggles themselves. If you get above 365 while doing all of this, more power to ya.
  
• 365-370: Adamantite Rifles. This recipe is available from the engineering vendor in Shattrath, and it'll carry you up to 370. On my server, they cost 40g to produce and sell for 10g, so the loss per Rifle is 30g. (You did save those Bolts and Casings from earlier, didn't you?) I got a skillup from every one until they turned green at 370, and my sole attempt at 370 failed to yield a skillup.
  
• 370-375: Khorium Scopes. Five of these should hopefully get you the rest of the way. Make sure to use those Hardened Adamantite Tubes you crafted earlier. You'll invest about 150g worth of mats, and you can sell them for about 100g, so that's a 50g loss per Scope. That's more than you lost with the Rifles, but at this point, you'll probably need to make at least two Rifles per skillup, so the Scopes are the cheapest way to go. Here's the catch: The recipe is a BoP drop from Sunfury Bowmen near Manaforge Duro in the Netherstorm, so you'll have to grind them for an hour or so in order to get it.

By the way, Felsteel Stabilizers and Khorium Power Cores can be purchased from the Area 52 engineering vendor in limited quantities. If you're patient enough, you can buy them from him at a steep discount. However, they appear to be profitable when crafted, so even if you can buy them from the vendor, there's no reason not to use them for skillups anyway. (Disclaimer: I never tried to sell any at the AH, so I don't know how fast you can move them.)

Good luck!